Bookmarkable URLUnlike the German version of the ‘Italian’ joust, which featured a broad grandguard (see A47, A48, A49), with the lower edge curving away from the body in the manner of older jousting shields, the reinforcing plates on genuinely Italian jousting armours were closely moulded to the shape of the body. Although it is now quite incomplete, the core elements of this armour (cuirass, pauldrons, vambraces, reinforcing plates and cuisses) are fine examples of the form of 16th-century Italian jousting armour. The reinforcing plates for the left side of the body are held in place with bolts that thread directly into the thick steel of the breast, which has been tapped to accept them. The lower left bolt secures both the bottom of the grandguard and the additional ventral plate, worn over the grandguard on the left side of the abdomen; this area is thus protected by three layers of steel. The left vambrace also strongly built in one piece without a turning joint. The left upper cannon is also somewhat heavier (+.19 kg) than the right. The right pauldron is heavily reinforced, which is not usually the case on German interpretations of equipment of the same essential style.

This armour also has various other disparate pieces associated with it, most prominently a close-helmet for the field which does not belong. Not only is it for war rather than the joust, it is also decorated with an entirely different decorative scheme. The gauntlets, tassets, greaves and sabatons are all modern restorations, and have now been removed.

Bookmarkable URLAlthough it was made for a powerful German nobleman, the large garniture to which these pieces belong is in fact not German at all, but Italian. It was made for Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Prince Bishop of Salzburg (1559-1617). The identity of the maker is uncertain, although it might have been created in the workshop of Pompeo della Chiesa, foremost of the late sixteenth-century Italian armourers and master of a very large operation in Milan. The garniture, parts of which are now also in Munich and St Petersburg, was probably made around the time that its owner took up the See of Salzburg, in 1587. It provided pieces for all primary war and sporting roles, including complete armours for the field, joust, free-tourney, and foot combat at the barriers. The Wallace Collection elements comprise the cuirass and close-helmet for the joust and the arm and shoulder defences for foot combat at the barriers, and would never have all been worn together.

The entire surface of this very costly armour has been lavishly etched and gilt. The decorative scheme is cleverly comprised of an alternating system of bands in which one band-type, with a gilt background and blackened figures –scrolling foliage and cartouches containing Classical figures– is flanked on either side with a contrasting type having a blackened background and gilded trophies of Greco-Roman-style arms and armour. All breastplates belonging to this garniture, including the one in the Wallace Collection, also display the device of a castle placed centrally, just below the neckline. This appears to be an unusual form of armourer’s mark, which appears on a number of other Milanese armours dating from the same period. The Raitenau armour is therefore not the work of Pompeo himself. The etched decoration however is closely similar in style to that found on another, contemporary armour in the Wallace Collection (A59), which bears the signature ‘Pompeo’, centrally, just below the neckline.

Bookmarkable URLStirrup, left, of ‘boot’-type, designed for use in the joust and tourney, one of a pair with A443. Of steel, etched and formerly gilt. To the arch-shaped stirrup has been added a large, rounded plate shaped to the front of the foot, along with a side plate to protect the outside of the ankle. At the top of the arch is a box for the stirrup leather. The whole surface is etched with trophies of arms and musical instruments on a scribbled, granulated ground, with bands, containing blackened, interlaced strapwork and oval panels of warriors and nude male figures also on a granulated ground, which still bears traces of gilding. The flat, iron sole is held in place by three lugs turned up and riveted to the foot-plate.

The flanking ankle-plate, which is decorated en suite, is fixed to the stirrup on the outer side and this, in turn, overlaps the foot-piece.

The style of decoration, especially the interlaced strapwork, is reminiscent of products from or associated with the Milanese workshop of Pompeo della Cesa (see also A59).

A pair of stirrups of the same form, but without decoration, is represented by Skelton I, pl. IV, fig. 6; other pairs are in the Royal Armouries and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

This pair probably form part of a garniture of which the arms, pauldrons, tassets, skirt and infantry cuirass are at Malta (Thomas and Gamber, 1958, p. 799, no. 9). The breastplate is signed POMPEO, by Pompeo della Cesa. The gorget does not belong to this garniture but to another for which the round target is still at Malta and parts of the man's armour at Sandringham (Laking, A Catalogue of the armour and arms in the Armoury of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 1904, no. 370, pl. Xxi; and C. P. Clarke, 1910, no. 772, pl. 32). The buff and fall of the burgonet of the garniture to which nos. A442 and 443 belong are probably no. 98 in the Museo Stibbert, Florence (1975 Cat., pl.90). Portions of this, or a vary similar armour are on loan to the Royal Armouries from the British Museum; a Spanish morion, a right pauldron for use with a lance-rest, the right rear arçon plate, and the right front arçon plate (nos. 43.5-7.285, 286, 287 and 288). A round target possibly from this garniture was formerly in the collection of William Randolph Hearst. Parts of a very similar garniture, also signed POMPE, but unfortunately largely re-etched apparently after heavy corrosion, was at Hever Castle (sold Sotheby's, 5 May 1983, lot 48, repr. in cat.). It consisted of a field helmet with gorget plates, left full pauldron pierced for a reinforce for the tourney, right full pauldron for combat on foot, symmetrical vambraces, cavalry breastplate and tassets, backplate, laminated cuisses for the field with poleyns, and greaves.

A portrait dated 1599, said to be of Juan Alfonso di Pimantel, Duque de Benevente (1533-1621), in the Instituo de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid (no. 32), shows an armour of almost identical design, but without the lions' masks on the pauldrons. The small cartouche on which the maker's signature appeared is clearly visible.

A garniture with very similar decoration is represented by a burgonet with a so-called Hungarian visor, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (no. 14.205.603). The principal difference is that the white band dividing the main decorative bands does not contain a narrow black line as it does on A442-3. While plain boot stirrups of this type are relatively common, decorated ones are distinctly rare. There is an etched example (formerly in the collection of the late Mr. F. H. Cripps-Day), is in the Royal Armouries (no. VI.348; Dufty and Reid, 1968, pl. CXXXIV). A note on its decoration was published by A.V.B. Norman in the Journal of the Arms and Armour Society (VII, p.229).

Bookmarkable URLStirrup, right, of ‘boot’-type, designed for use in the joust and tourney, one of a pair with A442. Of steel, etched and formerly gilt. To the arch-shaped stirrup has been added a large, rounded plate shaped to the front of the foot, along with a side plate to protect the outside of the ankle. At the top of the arch is a box for the stirrup leather. The whole surface is etched with trophies of arms and musical instruments on a scribbled, granulated ground, with bands, containing blackened, interlaced strapwork and oval panels of warriors and nude male figures also on a granulated ground, which still bears traces of gilding. The flat, iron sole is held in place by three lugs turned up and riveted to the foot-plate.

The flanking ankle-plate, which is decorated en suite, is fixed to the stirrup on the outer side and this, in turn, overlaps the foot-piece.The style of decoration, especially the interlaced strapwork, is reminiscent of products from or associated with the Milanese workshop of Pompeo della Cesa (see also A59).

A pair of stirrups of the same form, but without decoration, is represented by Skelton I, pl. IV, fig. 6; other pairs are in the Royal Armouries and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

This pair probably form part of a garniture of which the arms, pauldrons, tassets, skirt and infantry cuirass are at Malta (Thomas and Gamber, 1958, p. 799, no. 9). The breastplate is signed POMPEO, by Pompeo della Cesa. The gorget does not belong to this garniture but to another for which the round target is still at Malta and parts of the man's armour at Sandringham (Laking, A Catalogue of the armour and arms in the Armoury of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 1904, no. 370, pl. Xxi; and C. P. Clarke, 1910, no. 772, pl. 32). The buff and fall of the burgonet of the garniture to which nos. A442 and 443 belong are probably no. 98 in the Museo Stibbert, Florence (1975 Cat., pl.90). Portions of this, or a vary similar armour are on loan to the Royal Armouries from the British Museum; a Spanish morion, a right pauldron for use with a lance-rest, the right rear arçon plate, and the right front arçon plate (nos. 43.5-7.285, 286, 287 and 288). A round target possibly from this garniture was formerly in the collection of William Randolph Hearst. Parts of a very similar garniture, also signed POMPE, but unfortunately largely re-etched apparently after heavy corrosion, was at Hever Castle (sold Sotheby's, 5 May 1983, lot 48, repr. in cat.). It consisted of a field helmet with gorget plates, left full pauldron pierced for a reinforce for the tourney, right full pauldron for combat on foot, symmetrical vambraces, cavalry breastplate and tassets, backplate, laminated cuisses for the field with poleyns, and greaves.

A portrait dated 1599, said to be of Juan Alfonso di Pimantel, Duque de Benevente (1533-1621), in the Instituo de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid (no. 32), shows an armour of almost identical design, but without the lions' masks on the pauldrons. The small cartouche on which the maker's signature appeared is clearly visible.

A garniture with very similar decoration is represented by a burgonet with a so-called Hungarian visor, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (no. 14.205.603). The principal difference is that the white band dividing the main decorative bands does not contain a narrow black line as it does on A442-3. While plain boot stirrups of this type are relatively common, decorated ones are distinctly rare. There is an etched example (formerly in the collection of the late Mr. F. H. Cripps-Day), is in the Royal Armouries (no. VI.348; Dufty and Reid, 1968, pl. CXXXIV). A note on its decoration was published by A.V.B. Norman in the Journal of the Arms and Armour Society (VII, p.229).